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Word-of-mouth recruitment is the most common way to fill jobs, and management scholars have long thought that this practice contributes to job segregation by gender: women tend to reach out to other women in their networks, and men do likewise.

In fact, however, this form of recruitment can – and often does – contribute to gender desegregation, according to a study in the journal Organization Science by researchers at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

What’s more, employers can influence the process to ensure that it contributes to workforce diversity, rather than detracting from it, conclude professors Brian Rubineau of Desautels and Roberto Fernandez of MIT Sloan.